Scientist Discovers New Use for Industrial Fly Ash
- 13 years ago
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A new coal waste product is being mixed with magnesium and aluminum to create a lightweight, yet strong substitute for heavy metal products, like certain car parts. Dr. Nikhil Gupta from New York University's Polytechnic Institute believes the material could also be used to reduce the weight of everyday structures like park benches and lamp posts.
Coal-firing plants which burn coal to generate electricity produce a residue waste material called fly ash.
The dust-like substance is China's single biggest source of solid industrial waste.
Dr. Nikhil Gupta is Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in Brooklyn.
He has found a way to use fly ash with metals like aluminum or magnesium to make a material that can be used in a number of applications, including the manufacture of automobile parts.
Gupta says fly ash particles are ceramic-based and some are hollow and almost geometrically round.
[Dr. Nikhil Gupta, Assoc. Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NYU Polytechnic Institute]:
"We can mix fly ash in metal, just like a cake mix. And then we can use this mixture to cast a part that we need. So it can be a small engine cover or it can be a sump cover or an engine mount."
One of the most positive properties of the material is that it is lightweight, but just as strong as aluminum or magnesium products.
Gupta has carried out stringent laboratory high speed compression tests on the metal-fly ash mix to see how it withstands the equivalent pressure of a 60 mile per hour car accident.
There are several benefits to the science.
Firstly, fly ash, a waste product which would otherwise lie in landfills, is being used.
Plus, using less metal reduces pollution created by generating the primary metals.
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A new coal waste product is being mixed with magnesium and aluminum to create a lightweight, yet strong substitute for heavy metal products, like certain car parts. Dr. Nikhil Gupta from New York University's Polytechnic Institute believes the material could also be used to reduce the weight of everyday structures like park benches and lamp posts.
Coal-firing plants which burn coal to generate electricity produce a residue waste material called fly ash.
The dust-like substance is China's single biggest source of solid industrial waste.
Dr. Nikhil Gupta is Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in Brooklyn.
He has found a way to use fly ash with metals like aluminum or magnesium to make a material that can be used in a number of applications, including the manufacture of automobile parts.
Gupta says fly ash particles are ceramic-based and some are hollow and almost geometrically round.
[Dr. Nikhil Gupta, Assoc. Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NYU Polytechnic Institute]:
"We can mix fly ash in metal, just like a cake mix. And then we can use this mixture to cast a part that we need. So it can be a small engine cover or it can be a sump cover or an engine mount."
One of the most positive properties of the material is that it is lightweight, but just as strong as aluminum or magnesium products.
Gupta has carried out stringent laboratory high speed compression tests on the metal-fly ash mix to see how it withstands the equivalent pressure of a 60 mile per hour car accident.
There are several benefits to the science.
Firstly, fly ash, a waste product which would otherwise lie in landfills, is being used.
Plus, using less metal reduces pollution created by generating the primary metals.